Hawks captain on corruption charge

A Hawks captain appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate's Court on Thursday for alleged corruption and extortion.

Patrick Siyali, 51, dressed in a blue tracksuit, seemed calm as Denzil Combrink, for the State, read the charges against him.

Combrink said the charges were corruption, extortion and theft, and conspiracy to commit the first two charges.

He asked that the case be postponed for bail information. This included statements from two police officers, the results of a photo identification parade, the collection of personal details, and an investigation into a second suspect. He also wanted to a statement from someone who withdrew a corruption case.

Ross Mckernan, for the defence, objected to the postponement on the basis that it did not fulfil requirements of the Criminal Procedure Act. He said the State had to prove that the alleged crimes amounted to more than R10 000, and that a syndicate could be involved.

He withdrew the objection when the State made further submissions.

“The amount (of money tied up in charges) exceeds R10 000. The State is going to allege they acted in a syndicate or in a syndicated matter... There is an amount of R300 000 also involved in terms of a black dollar scheme,” Combrink told the court.

A black dollar scheme involves duping people by presenting them with a suitcase full of paper the same size as money, but which they say is painted black to get through airport scanners, or for some other convincing reason.

People were tricked into believing that by “washing” the money with an expensive substance, they would be left with a case full of genuine notes.